I would like to say that you’re the most beautiful mathematical problem (not literally, I hope you know) that I’ve encountered. The Average time required to get a PhD in mathematics wouldn’t be enough trying to figure you out. It makes me happy to know that I’d be spending the rest of my life trying to figure you out, the most beautiful mathematical problem I’ve ever seen. Such beautiful mathematical model you are. 1
Different mathematical problems seem interesting to different people. Certain people obsess over trying to solve some of these problems. Some people make it the mission of their lives to try and solve some of these problems. Andrew Weils solved Fermat’s Last Theorem, I wonder how obsessed he must have been trying to solve a problem that had been left unsolved for hundreds of years. I wonder if he had Fermat’s Last Theorem on his mind almost all of the time just like I have you on mine. If I ever tried to get you out of mind(which I don’t think I ever want to do), you are so deeply entrenched in my mind that you’d pop back up within no time. Like in the not-so-famous words of my favorite not-so-famous philosopher, Still Woozy2:
I locked you out (oh)
And fell asleep and
You 007'd your way back in
Some mathematical problems are birthed by people like you and I. 3 Fermat’s last theorem was birthed by Pierre de Fermat and some of the Millennium Problems are also birthed by people4. Your mother was the one who birthed you, the most beautiful mathematical problem I have ever seen.
Other guys stumble upon your beauty, they acknowledge it and even attempt to try and solve you but they often get frustrated abandoning the problem—you—entirely to focus on other problems (whose beauty can never compare to yours). They abandon you not because of your difficulty level but because they aren’t as patient as I am. They often try to focus on other problems, in the process of trying to solve you, they are tempted by the beauty of other problems and that proves most of the time to be a calamity but unlike them, you are the only problem that I can and want to focus on. Other problems try to drag my attention away from you but it’s always unsuccessful because you are the only problem that I’ve decided to dedicate my entire life to solving. Only you deserve all of my attention, the most beautiful mathematical problem I have ever seen. Asides the focus, they also don’t have the insight that’s needed for solving you. Insight gotten from careful study of what you are like, the first moment I encountered you. How do I know these other guys who have attempted to solve you in the past don’t have this insight? Good question. How I know is from careful observation and analysis of the way they all treated you. If guys had the insight that I currently have, trust me, they’d dedicate their lives to solving you just like I have dedicated my own life.
A magnum opus is the greatest work of a person’s life and my dear, you are going to be my magnum opus. I dread even finding a solution to you because that would mean that I have to discard you and I don’t want to do that at all. You are that beautiful. If I have the key to solving you, I’ll make sure to write it down so future humans if they encounter my notes can write out the solution. If I have this key, I’d be content with just basking in your beauty till the day I die. Even if I don’t find a key or a solution by the end of my life, I’m going to document every single thought I have about you, all the insights and all that shit. I’m going to attempt something that Pythagorean tried in his blog—The 17th codex5—where he tries to document his thought process in trying to solve a mathematical problem. That’s something I want to do. My notes are going to be filled with my thoughts. Thoughts where I think about you and try to develop a solution/key. Maybe one day, someone would go through my notes and see the honest work that I put in towards you. Maybe they even write a book further popularizing how beautiful you were to me, who knows? Maybe even see something in the notes that I might have stumbled upon but totally missed.
I also get scared of losing you. You are not something that can exactly die. Getting old(if I’m lucky) might affect my memory. Some disease might affect my memory and this might lead me to lose you, the most beautiful mathematical problem. I’d forget about your beauty. I’d forget about all of the insights I encountered in my quest to solve you. I’d look at my notes detailing all of these and find them indecipherable, incomprehensible. I am afraid I’d look at you and wouldn’t be able to recollect the memories of us together.
You are the most beautiful mathematical problem that I have ever seen and will always remain that to me.
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I’d like to apologize for publishing this late. In the Pilot post, I did mention trying to publish on the last weekend of the month but this is a new month. I was working on something and underrated hugely the amount of time it’ll take to write it but as soon as I’m done with it, I will publish it.
This is exactly the toot I made on Mastodon last morning. The following after this passage is an extension of this. Considering the heartache I suffered recently, I had a burning desire to write and the idea of making an extension to this didn’t seem like a bad idea.
The quote is from Still Woozy’s Get By.
At this point, I started to wonder if Chat-GPT3 has the capability or could ever have the capability of developing novel mathematical ideas, problems and solutions to these problems and even already existing mathematical problems.
Birth here might be suggesting that mathematics is invented rather than it being this thing that is discovered. If you’re wondering what I think, whether mathematics is discovered or invented, I do think it’s discovered.
There’s something that I’m working on but isn’t yet complete. As soon as I finish it, I’ll publish it. It’s quite unorthodox as well as experimental but who cares, right?